Tea for Two
by rainbows-and-fries
Summary: Robbie loves tea. Cat hates not being invited to parties. A story of frienship, love and jealousy. Of Brittish Man Candy and old sweet ladies with good advice. Of Tree houses and of Mermaids and of sticky sweet unicorns. And of course. A story of Tea.
1. Hot tea and hot headed red heads

**AN: Hi there. This first chapter is ridiculously short. But they get longer…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious. But you know that.**

I love tea.

I guess that is something not a lot of people know about me. I love tea. It's my biggest addiction. I love it. It calms my nerves, it makes feel all warm and it's also freaking delicious. Best beverage in the world.

I don't know why it's as much of a secret as it is. It's not that I'm _trying_to keep it a secret, I just don't go around exclaiming my undying love for the drink everywhere I go. And I drink it mostly at home and nobody does even really pay attention to what I ordered if we ever go out for coffee. So it's like the number one thing people don't know about me. Even if it's not intentional.

I remember one time. I think it may have been the only time I even touched the subject of my drinking habits. And it was so brief it was barely noticeable.

I was alone in my room playing around on my laptop. Naturally there was a cup of boiling hot tea by my side. as i looked at my cup, a thought crossed my mind and I immediately went to the slap to share my thought. Because what better to do with your contemplations than share them with the world, right?

_"How__come__guys__don't__ever__have__tea__parties?__Who's__up__for__tea__at__my__place__tonight?_" I wrote. I added the last thing as a funny twist... Or... Yeah I don't know why really. It just happened.

Cat was quick to comment. She was always fast on these things, always carrying her Pear phone around and probably being the fastest typer in the world.

_"I__am!_" her reply read and I smiled to myself, hadn't I specifically asked why GUYS didn't have tea parties?

_"Cat,__it's__for__guys__only!"_ I wrote. It wasn't like I had seriously planned on throwing said tea party. Basically I was just bored wanted to start some kind of topic of conversation on my slap-page... Let's face it. My slap-page was pretty boring. Oh well.

Cat didn't reply right away and I understood that she wasn't going to either. So I turned off my laptop and closed it. Swallowing the last of my tea in one draft and walking over to the bathroom to brush my teeth.

~~

I noticed something was wrong as soon as I came to school the next morning. As I walked over to my locker I looked around to see if there was anyone around that at least didn't look disgusted and ran away as soon as I talked to them. And this being Tori, Beck, Cat or André... Maybe even Trina if she was in a good mood.

I didn't really know why people disliked me so much. It wasn't like I had done something to hurt anyone, but I guess that wasn't the only source for dislike these days. I wasn't attractive, I was awkward and constantly looking for acceptance which I guess could come off as annoying and kind of needy. But the people who had actually managed to look beneath that had actually become my friends, and I was very thankful for that. Not that they were always nice to me, the only one who really was was probably Cat because she didn't know much else.  
>But they stuck around. They put up with me. And I guess that was what made them my friends.<p>

Anyway, it didn't look like any of them were there at the moment. Probably already gone for first period so I started picking out the books I would need from my locker. Suddenly I caught something bright red pass by from the corner of my eye and I swirled around.

"Hey Cat!" I called giving a half-hearted wave at the pretty girl walking down the hallway. She froze for a second at the sound of my voice but then she simply kept walking. Not even shooting me look or a smile. Nothing.

I frowned as Rex gave another one of his obnoxious comments, sometimes I seriously considered getting rid of the doll, but I just stuffed him in my locker and slammed it shut, wondering whether I should go after Cat or not. It seemed as though she was angry with me, but I had no idea what for. Maybe she had another dream where I abandoned her, telling more blood-thirsty kids or something else horrifying  
>to eat her instead of me. It could basically be anything. As I walked up the stairs to get to my first period I decided I would ask her about it later so that I could fix it... whatever it was she was angry about I would not let the only person who was nice to me go and be mad. No way.<p>

My talking to Cat mission didn't go as planned though. I didn't see her all day until last period which was Sikowitz class where I didn't have the chance to talk to her anyway due to us all having to act out scenes from one of Sikowitz's favourite play "The girl who got her hand stuck in a jar of pickles."

After class Cat left before I could get a hold of her and she was gone by the time I had collected all my stuff.  
>I picked up my phone and texted quickly.<p>

_"Y__are__u__mad?" _ I wrote. I stared at the phone hoping for a reply. 5 seconds. 10 seconds... 30 seconds... One minute...2 minutes... Nothing came. I put the phone back into my pocket and walked fiercely out of the classroom starting to feel slightly agitated.

"Woah!" Tori called as I passed her and Andre in the hallway. "Someone is walking oddly briskly today. What is up?"

"Cat's mad at me for no reason..." I said. Stopping and looking at them.

Tori scrunched her eyebrows together. " Yeah… She seemed even weirder than usual today didn't she?"

"Tori..." I whined and she looked at me.

"Look. It's Cat." Andre said. "She'll be over it tomorrow just upload a picture of a unicorn at The Slap or something and she'll come around..."  
>She was mad at me<br>suddenly something seemed to dawn in my mind. The Slap. Of course. She was mad at me for the Tea Party thing. She hated not being invited for parties.

This was bad. I knew it was silly. It wasn't really something to get mad at but She was Cat and there wasn't really anything that I could to change her or her strange ways of taking this way to personal. But I knew what to do.

**AN: So that was the first chapter. Please tell me if you think they're out of character because I've been thinking that a bit my self. Next chapter will be up soon. Thanks for reading :)**


	2. Tasty apologies

**AN: Here's the next chapter. Wohoo. Okay but seriously. It's still not very long but to be honest the story has barely started yet. I hope you stick with it anyway.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Victorious.**

I parked my car outside the big house and looked up at the window which I knew led to Cat's room. I was starting to doubt whether or not this was a good idea. It had seemed to be a great one when I got it. But now it just felt stupid standing in the driveway, my bag heavy from everything that I was carrying.

I decided to go for it anyway and I took a deep breath before walking up the drive-way towards the door. I knocked three times and took a step back, waiting for someone to come open for me.

Suddenly the door creaked open and revealed a scruffy man looking to be in his twenty's. Cat's brother I assumed.

"Hi." I said trying to keep my voice steady.

He grunted a little looking at me.

"Is Cat home?" I asked.

He grunted again and walked back into the house, leaving me on the front porch, the door still open.  
>In a minute I saw Cat come skipping down the stairs, she was wearing a tank top and shorts, her hair pulled back in a long red pony-tail. She stopped abruptly when she saw me.<br>She immediately exchanged her usual smile with a frown and was just about to turn and walk back up the stairs.

"Cat, Wait!" I yelled out of pure instinct.

She stopped again and looked at me.

"Why are you mad?" I asked even though I was about 99% sure of the answer.

"Why didn't you invite me to your party?" She asked in her high-pitched voice, sounding aggravated.

I held back my smile, knowing that she was genuinely upset. "Cat, there was no party! I was just joking."

"Well it wasn't funny." She said, the frown still plastered across her face.

"But to make it up to you..." I said as I started rummaging around in my backpack. "I brought this." I picked up two cups and two bags of tea. Showing them to her and seeing her face light up slightly.

"Tea!" She smiled jumping down the last two steps and taking the cups from me.

"I'm sorry." I said, smiling insecurely. "So you want to have this tea party now or what?"

"Totally!" She giggled, leading the way into the kitchen positively beaming with joy. It was amazing how fast her mood could change.

"Shall we boil some water?" I asked as she put down the cups on the table.

She giggled again and nodded, filling the kettle with water and starting to heat it. We didn't speak until the water was finished and we filled our cups to the rim with it.

"We can go to my room." she said. "This isn't very cozy."

I agreed and followed her up the stairs to the pink, fluffy nest that was her room.

She pulled out a table to the middle of the room which we put down the cups on. Then she pulled out two beanbag-chairs for us to sit in.

"Sit down." She said, finishing off with her characteristic giggle whilst plopping down into a beanbag.

I sat down awkwardly and picked up my cup from the table, blowing on it to cool it off.

"Where is Rex?" Cat asked suddenly.

"I left him at home tonight." I answered. Cat wasn't really the one to back-talk someone. But I could tell she was happy I had chosen not to bring him.

"I love this tea." She said after taking another sip of it. "What is it?"

"I think it's called Orange Jaïpur." I answered.

"I didn't even know you liked tea, Robbie?"

I chuckled. "Well... I do."

"I do too!" She called out, giggling hysterically.

"Ah Cat, put down the cup before you do that!" I said as she spilled her tea all over herself in her giggle-attack.

She smiled and put down her cup before giggling again. I couldn't help but smile myself.

~~

"Woah! It's already eleven!" I exclaimed as I checked my Pear phone a few hours later. Cat and I had completely lost track of time. Boiling more and more kettles of tea and talking about everything worth talking about.

"I really should go." I said, raising up.

"I'll see you tomorrow Robbie." Cat said as I walked out of her room.

"Yeah, bye." I smiled.

As I walked down to my car i felt satisfied. It had been a good evening and Cat wasn't mad at me anymore. We had so much fun just drinking tea and talking. It was definitely something I wanted to do again. Although I wasn't really sure on how to approach her with the question.

I tried to think of a good way to ask her and felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I picked it up to check the text. It was from Cat.

"_We__should__do__this__again__sometime__:D" __  
><em>  
>That problem was out of the way then.<p>

And we did do it again sometime. Cat and I met only two days later for another tea-party. This time including biscuits. We had a great time and decided to keep doing it. Drink tea and hang out and we also decided on some rules.

I don't really know why we made rules. It's not like you usually need rules of any kind just for drinking tea. But we did it anyway, just for fun. By the end of the night we had come up with for of them.

1. The Tea-party was to be held at a different setting every time. It could never be in the same place twice and we would take turns in deciding where we should go.

2. The tea also had to be different from time to time, so that we both wouldn't get tired of it.

3. I wasn't aloud to bring Rex to the parties. it took a while for her to convince me on this one. But I gave in eventually.

4. Unless someone asked, we weren't to speak of our meetings in school. It was a weird rule. It wasn't like we wanted to sneak around with what we were doing, but at the same time we wanted this rule. Maybe only to fill out the list.

"So next time, we go somewhere else and we drink something else?" Cat said as she was about to leave. We had been at my house today.

"Yep." I replied. "So. I'll text you when I figure something out."

She giggled. "Kay."

"Bye Cat."

"Byee!"

I watched as the red-head bobbed away over my front lawn and then I turned back into my house. Time to think of a setting for our next tea party.

I wanted to pick somewhere I knew she would like. But where was that?

Oh well. I'd figure something out.

**Yeahh… That was that. More coming shortly. Thanks again for reading, review if you so please.**


	3. Madhouse or treehouse

_**AN:**____**So**____**this**____**one**__**'**__**s**____**a**____**little**____**longer.**____**Personally**____**I**____**like**____**this**____**chapter**____**a**____**lot.**____**I**____**hope**____**you**____**do**____**too.**_

_**Disclaimer:**____**I**____**do**____**not**____**own**____**Victorious.**___

_"Tea__party__tonight.__I'll__pick__you__up__at__8."___

I pressed send and waited eagerly for my reply. It came only a few seconds later spelling out a simple "K" and a smiley-face.

I had given a lot of though as to where I was going to have my Tea-Party and finally decided on just taking her to the park. I had brought a little picnic blanket and a thermos filled with tea. I chose Earl grey, thinking that we hadn't had it yet and since it was the most boring tea on earth it would be nice to get it out of the way.

I drove to Cat's house at 8 just as I had told her and she came skipping out the door, plopping down next to me in the passenger seat.

"Hi!" She said, giggling away as usual. I would never understand why she always did that. But I kind of liked it.

"Hello Miss." I answered. "Are you ready for tea?"

"She giggled again. "I sure am Mister. Take me away!"

I turned y eyes to the road and pressed the gas pedal, rolling away down the street.

"Where are we going?" She asked. And I smirked at her.

"You'll see when we get there."

"What tea?"

I explained my Earl Grey theory and she agreed.

"Smart!"

A few minutes later I pulled up at the side of the road.

"Where are we?" Cat asked looking around, only seeing houses.

"Don't worry. We're not going to do it here. But we have to walk from here since there's no where to park the car where we're going."

"Kay." Cat giggled again and stepped out of the car.

We walked down the street and around the corner where big trees were revealing themselves.

"Oh!" Cat clapped her hands together. "The Park! I love the park."

She ran ahead of me picking out a patch of grass where I could lay the blanket and began jumping on the spot yelling at me to hurry up.

"Calm down!" I yelled walking up to her. "Here." I put down the blanket and sat down, starting to unpack the tea and the cups.

"Yay!" Cat sat down next to me her whole face shining with happiness.

"This is so much fun!" She exclaimed.

I nodded. I actually agreed. This had been a great idea. It felt nice spending time with Cat one on one. Like I could act 100% like myself and not try to satisfy everyone else. Cat liked me for me. Or at least I hoped so... But why would she be here otherwise?

~~

Almost an hour later we were both laying on our backs on the picnic blanket, looking up at the soon-to-be dark sky. We had finished the tea long ago and since then we had just been laying there on silence. At first I had found it uncomfortable and desperately tried to come up with something to talk about, but as time passed I started to relax more and more and now the silence was quite nice. Until Cat broke it.

"Robbie." She said. Her voice was quiet and insecure.

"Yeah?"

"Do you... You know... Do you think I'm weird?"

"Of course. Who doesn't?" I chuckled. She sat up quickly.

"That was really mean!" She cried out sounding very upset.

I sat up too, looking at her, understanding that she once again had taken things too personal.

"No." I said. "You're weird in a good way. The way that makes the people around you smile because they know you are something special" I said, surprising myself with the deepness of that speech. I wasn't deep, was I?

"No they don't. They all think I'm stupid or that... that I have some sort of mental illness." She replied, her face turning even sadder.

"Cat, where have you heard that?"

"There's rumours."

I felt disgusted and shocked. Why would someone spread a rumour about that.

"What?" I said.

She nodded slowly.

"But... You don't... You don't right?"

"No!" She cried out.

"No you don't. And even if you did it wouldn't really matter Cat. Because you have a hole heap of friends who love you anyway and you know that."

"Yeah but... But sometimes I feel like they feel like that too, you know." She said, looking me right in the eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"You guys always look at me like I am a stupid five year old..."

I fell silent. Maybe we did. But that was only because she acted like one. And that was why we all liked her. She was herself. Her special, childish self.

"Why did you come to me with this, Cat...?" I asked, suddenly realizing that it was me she was talking about this with and not any one else. She could've gone to Tori or Jade who she was a lot better friends with. But she had come to me...

"Because... Uhm... I see how the other guys are all mean to you and you know… I think that's really unfair and I figured maybe you would understand me since we're the two people that no one seems to get."

It was the most sincere thing I've ever heard Cat say. And for once she didn't sound like a five year old. This girl did actually have something inside her head, and in her heart... Because she was right.

"But you do realize, Cat, that they actually like you, and they only hang around me because I basically forced myself onto them." I said. Feeling worse about myself as I spoke the words I had been thinking about.

"Robbie!" Cat shouted and I stared at her with wide eyes. "You know that's not true."

I fell silent not knowing what to say. Maybe she was right...

Cat was right. For once she was right and she was right about everything she had said today. We were the misfits of our group, and even though we may be considered as friends by the rest, or most part of them on my end, we were the ones who understood each other the most. Because we were both misunderstood.

"Thanks Cat..." I said, giving a half-smile.

"For what?" she looked at me, confused.

"I don't know really. For... getting me... I guess"

She nodded and smiled back.

"Now let's get going I said, standing up. And together we started packing up the tea and the blanket to go home.

Our next tea party was held a couple of days later. It was Cat's turn to choose place and sort of Tea, so all I had to do was wait for the text that was going to tell me where I should be and when. It came Friday while we were having lunch at the Asphalt café.

I looked up at Cat as I saw that she was the one who sent me the text. She just giggled frivolously and continued to eat her sushi.

I read the text under the table.

"_Robbie!__HAHA__look__I'm__texting__you__from__across__the__table.__I__can__see__u.__Anywayy. Tea__tonight.__And__we're__walking__there.__Come__over__at__8__:D"__  
><em>  
>I looked over at her and nodded slightly, barely noticeable for the people around us and she giggled again.<p>

Several hours later I was walking up to Cat's front door, wondering where we were going. I had no idea what could possibly have come to the little red-heads mind and I was kind of curious about it.

She opened the door before I even had time to knock and skipped passed me. "Uhm... Hi Cat...?" I said and she giggled.

"Come on Robbie!" She called, already across the lawn and on the street. I walked over to her and she looked at me.

"Guess what?" She said, practically jumping out of pure eagerness.

"What?" I asked.

"I'VE GOT UNICORN TEA!" she yelled.

"Cat, there's no such thing as Unicorn Tea..." I said, looking at her in disbelief.

"Yes there is!" she said picking something out of her bag. "Look! It's so cool!"

I looked at the bag she was holding in her hand. On it was a picture of a unicorn and it was coloured as a rainbow. "Unicorn Tea" was spelled out in big pink letters across the small bag that was containing the tea.

"And look!" she shouted, then breathing in heavily out of excitement. "It's pink!" She opened the bag and held it up in front of me, urging me to look into it. As I looked down I saw the tiny tea leaves, all of them pink, I caught the sticky sweet smell emerging from them. I smiled vaguely at her.

"Wow... Very cool." I stated and she giggled once again.

"I know!"

We started walking down the street. I was wondering where we were going. Looking over at Cat i noticed how pretty she looked. Her scarlet hair let out, dressed in a simple purple dress and a black cardigan with white little hearts on it. I loved Cat's sense of style, or maybe not sense oof style, but you know... I loved the way she dressed. It was just so preppy and... Cat.

She was bobbing her head slightly as if she was listening to music. i knew she had gone back to her own little world and I couldn't help but wondering what it was like. Cat-world?

Everything was probably, rainbows and Unicorns and cotton-candy. And tea? Did she have tea in Cat-world? I found myself hoping that she did. Not really knowing why though.

She stopped abruptly and I looked around. We had only walked down the street and around the corner. There were still houses everywhere and the only place that wasn't inhabited was a little square patch of grass with a slide, a swing set and a huge tree.

"So... This is where we're going?" I asked...

"No." she giggled. "We're going there!" She pointed upwards at the tree and through the branches I could see boards. A tree-house?

"Uhm..." I began, not really sure about what to say to her...

"It's my tree-house!" she shouted.

Of course Cat would have a tree-house. She probably had it built for her when she was little and she probably, being Cat, still came here every once in a while.

"Do you… Uh... hang out here often?"

"Uh-huh!" she nodded. We were now standing at the foot of the tree. "Kay... Help me up!" she giggled a little again and I stared at her.

"Help...you...?"

"Come on Robbie!" She waved at me to come up closer and I linked my fingers together so that she could use my hands as a step. Lucky for me she wasn't wearing heels.

She stepped up and grabbed one of the lower branches, heaving herself up. I was stunned by her strength and her flexibility...

"Cat I don't think I can do... uhm... that. I'm a teenage boy. I'm clumsy and I have pretty much no control over my own body."

She giggled again. She had climbed her way up to the platform up among the branches and she was looking down at me, her hair hanging in strands all around her head.

I frowned as I contemplated how on earth I was going to get up there. She was smaller, more flexible than me and besides she had me to step on. I did not. But I was taller than her, so maybe if I jumped...

My hands gripped around one of the lower branches and slipped right off. I jumped again but my hands would not seem to like to stay around the tree. I sighed.

"Cat... This isn't working..." I said in an exasperated voice.

"Wait..." She said and her head disappeared for a moment.

"Yay!" I heard her call and the next second a rope-ladder was falling down through the branches, almost hitting me in the head when they came clashing down.

"I found the latter!" She called and I shook my head.

"Yeah I noticed."

It took me a while to climb up since the latter kept twisting and twirling but eventually I was sitting next to Cat upon the platform of boards she apparently called a tree-house, even though I wouldn't have...

We filled our cups with the sweet-smelling pink Unicorn tea.

"Where did you find this anyway?" I asked but I thought I knew the answer already.

"Sky Store!" she giggled and took a sip.

I nodded... She never really came off that addiction.

"So this is your childhood get-away?" I asked and she looked at me with a confused look.

"It's my tree-house."

I sighed at her imbecility but at the same time finding it quite amusing...  
>"Okay... when did you get this Tree-house then?"<p>

"It's been here since forever. I share it with all the kids in the neighborhood." She said.

"So you do actually come here a lot."

"Yeah..." she took a sip of her tea, a dreamy look finding it's way to her eyes and she was back in Cat-world. And right then, something hit me. What if_this_ was Cat-world? The place where she could just do whatever she liked, play with the kids, sing and dance out loud, sit in her 'tree-house' and just be Cat. I came to the conclusion I wouldn't ask her about it, but I assumed I was right, and even if I wasn't, I could always pretend I was. The thought kind of satisfied me. Because it meant she had invited me to come there with her.

As I went to bed that night I thought about it again. Cat and me. We did really kind of get each other even though we didn't at all. And these tea party things had really got me thinking. Cat obviously thought a lot more than we thought she did. And she obviously had a life we knew nothing about. Sure, she was off in her own thoughts most of the time, but we didn't know where she went... Although I think I maybe had figured it out. _Maybe._

**AN: Yes I do put AN's both at the top and at the bottom. Does this bother you? Oh well. We'll see when the next chapter is up. Thanks for reading. I do like reviews.**


	4. Another Cup of Holiday Cheer

We were in school and second period was just about to start. We were all in Sikowitz's classroom waiting for the coconut-milk drinking, barefoot, slightly crazy man that was our acting-coach. We were all listening to Tori talk about something Trina had done the night before.

"And then she just took it. She took the corndog right out of my hand and ate it. Right in front of me. Can you believe it? She calls me fat and then she eats _my food!"___

"Well..." Jade started and Beck gave her a typical be nice-look. Just like always.

"I once had a corndog." Cat blurted out and I could see where this was heading. Our pattern of conversation was always the same;

Someone telling a story, Jade throwing a menacing comment, Beck trying to get Jade to not be so obnoxious and Cat saying something completely irrelevant that ends up having nothing to do with the subject _at all _and everybody looking at her like she was some sort of run away mental-patient.

"No wait that was a carrot." She said and just as I had predicted she received concerned and annoyed looks from the others.

"I like Carrots..." I said.

Ever since Cat confided in me in the park I had tried to be nicer towards her. I had stopped giving her the looks that I used to give her when she said something stupid, and I had even made Rex stop poking fun at her.

The other ones looked at me, their eyebrows furrowed.

"Well, I do." I had realized that Cat always had been nice to me. Ok, she was nice to pretty much every one but... Whenever the other ones would make fun of me, she wouldn't. I hadn't noticed that before and it made me feel bad, I wanted to make it up to her. And now after our little talk it was more relevant than ever.

"Well that's great..." Tori said her eyebrows still close together.

"Good day class!"

We all turned our heads to see Sikowitz the wondrous coconut man enter, as usual with half a coconut in his hands.

"Let's start today's lesson!"

"This is the Asphalt Café!" Cat cried out.

"I... uhm… know that."

"I love the Asphalt Café..."

I had texted Cat to meet me at school by nine and she had turned up in all her Cat-glory right on time. Now she was acting overly excited as we walked around the school to the place where we usually had lunch.

"Soo..." I started. "You may be thinking that we're going to have tea here..."

"We're not?" Her happy facial expression turned into a bemused one.

"Nope." I responded. "I thought we were going to continue a little bit on the climbing theme and this time, maybe we could go even higher" I said looking up at the school roof.

She drew in a sharp breath. "Are we going to go on a spaceship?" she asked, looking completely stunned. I just stared at her. A spaceship? She always managed to catch me off guard.

"No, Cat, no spaceship. We're going up on the roof."

"Yay!" she yelled.

"And besides, there is no way we could go on a spaceship, none of us are" I started but she had already run towards the school building, now she was standing up close to the wall, staring up at the roof.

"Cat, we're climbing up from over here..." I said stepping over to her and dragging her with me by the wrist. She giggled as she followed me.

"Wiiiii" I heard her yell and I shook my head again. Oh Cat...

We made our way upwards and somehow we managed to pull ourselves up on the roof. There we put down our things and I picked up the tea of the day. Blackcurrant. One of my favourites.

It was a little bit later than it usually was for our Tea-parties. Basically because i wanted to be sure everybody had left the school. I hadn't really done anything like this before, I was pretty sure climbing up on the roof wasn't something encouraged at Hollywood Arts High school. Might even be forbidden. And yet, here we were. The two people no one would ever think to be breaking a rule, drinking tea on top of the school as the sun was slowly setting.

This was actually quite a romantic spot. I pictured this to be a place I would take my girlfriend... you know... If I would ever manage to get a girlfriend. We could sit here and watch the sunset and, you know, talk and... kiss and it would be so perfect and romantic and... I looked over at Cat. She seemed to be enjoying herself to the fullest, drinking her tea, smiling a little bit to herself.

Perhaps I didn't really want to bring anyone else up here. For some reason it felt like I would be betraying Cat if I ever did. I didn't really know why, but the moment we set our feet on the roof it had kind of become our place, even though it was our first time there, and it just wouldn't feel right bringing someone else.

We had been sitting in silence for a while when Cat stretched and yawned loudly.

"You tired?" I asked.

"Oh no!" Cat smiled. "Not yet."

Five minutes later she had fallen asleep. How she could do that was beyond me? It was like 10 pm and she had been up way longer than this before. I looked at her. She probably hadn't napped today, then. She usually napped, didn't she? Maybe this was what happened if she didn't.

I decided to let her sleep for a while. I sat in silence looking up at the now dark sky. I was lucky to have Cat as my friend. Without her I would probably just be miserable and lonely. Not that I wasn't already. But I was just saying that it would have been worse.

She was cute when asleep. She looked peaceful and calm, as if all the giddiness from when she was awake had just slipped right off her. She looked like the most tranquil person alive. Which was a total opposite of the normal, daytime Cat.

I woke her up when I felt like it was time leaving. She looked disappointed.

"I fell asleep!" She yelled. "Why didn't you wake me up? Now I missed out on all the fun."

"Calm down Cat it's not like we aren't going to have plenty of other tea parties, right?" I answered trying to calm her down.

"But they won't be on the roof!" She said, sticking out her bottom lip.

"No, that's true." I said slowly. "But it's not the place that makes the tea parties awesome. It's the company." That might work.

"That's so sweet Robbie!" She yelled.

Okay. It worked.

I suddenly felt something come crashing down on me and the next moment my arms were around Cat's back and hers around mine.

"Uhm..." I began, feeling uncomfortable but at the same time right in place. It was a weird feeling.

"Oh… Sorry." she said, blushing slightly as she backed away from me.

"Don't... uh… Don't worry." I smiled.

~~

In the beginning we had our tea parties fairly often, like two or three times a week. But as time passed the gaps between the parties grew longer and longer. Not that it really mattered though. Cat and I had become closer and closer and I was much less awkward and insecure now when I knew I had a real friend that really liked me for me. There was a time in my life when I could have never been this close to a girl without starting to read into it and thinking that we would fall in love and get married and make babies one day. Not anymore. Cat was my friend, and even though we now hung out constantly, made body-contact and just interacted a lot, I didn't feel like jumping her bones as soon as she batted her eyelashes against me. At least not _all _the time.

But just because the tea parties happened more rarely didn't mean that we stopped having them. And it was actually quite nice having them a little bit more spread out, because it built up some sort of anticipation in both of us that made it even more fun when we actually got there.

Once Cat took me to a local fair and we sat in the Ferris wheel for two hours drinking peppermint tea and having the time of our lives. Since there was no line what so ever we didn't have to get off as long as we kept giving the guy who worked there new tickets as soon we reached the ground. One other time I decided that we were going to go to the beach and we sat in the sand drinking Egyptian tea and simply not caring about anything else.

I was starting to leave Rex behind on occasion. Not that I wasn't still attached to him, I just left him in my locker more often, sometimes I even left him at home. The rest of the group pointed it out at one time and I just said that he had been particularly annoying that morning and that I left him at home. Rex was still a part of me. He just wasn't as big part of me as he used to. I found it quite scary not always having him there on my arm, but sometimes it was quite a relief, and I knew that if I ever needed him I could just take him out of my locker again.

The weeks passed and before we knew it Christmas was around the corner. As a Jew, I had been celebrating Chanukah already, but all my friends were really starting to get worked up for the holidays. And winter break was just starting, so I was in quite a holiday mood myself.

We were at Tori's house. She had invited us all over to exchange gifts and just hang out before we all went to different places. I was in a great mood, mainly because I had been invited. Okay so, nowadays I was actually usually invited. But I always thought it was out of pity, even if it wasn't.

We we're hanging Christmas decorations and carolling loudly. Tori had baked cute little gingerbread cookies and we were all having a great time. Yeah, even Jade was humming along and actually looking quite happy, walking around the house and putting up mistletoes with Beck. They made sure to kiss under every single one of them.

Trina was with us too, she was singing just a tad too loud causing us all to yell at her so she would stop.

She just gave us an annoyed look and continued to dance around the living room instead.

When Christmas-ifying Tori's house was all done we sat down in the living room to exchange gifts.

I sat down with the other ones and we put all the gifts in a pile on the table. And then Tori acted Santa Clause and started reading aloud from the presents and handing them out. From Jade and Beck I got a new harmonica. Lucky since Jade had tossed my old one in the ocean on our Trip to Yerba that summer. From Tori I received a Star Trek DVD, which caused me to squeal in happiness. Andre got me a jar of creamed peas. My favourite baby food. Trina got me a stash of signed photo's of her self and told me it was for when she became famous, and even though I didn't think those photos would ever be useful, since Trina had barely no talent at all, I thanked her for them and put them in the pile amongst my other presents.

Everybody seemed fairly happy with what they had received. Jade was admiring her new box full of scissors she had got from me with a small smirk on her lips. I suddenly found myself slightly regretting giving them to her. Trina was looking at herself in the mirror she'd gotten from Tori, who was sniffing her own wrist where she had just sprayed the new perfume Cat had given her. Cat was playing happily with the plush-toys she'd gotten from me and Beck and Andre was reading the back of the box with old movie classics that Jade had bought Beck.

After a while of admiring own and other's Christmas gifts Andre took place at the big piano and started playing something. Tori ran to sit down beside him and Andre looked at her.

"You want to show them the new song?" He asked, still playing the chords to the song and smiling at her.

"Sure." Tori beamed and she rose from her seat to come stand in front of the piano.

"Oh great." Jade said dully as we sat down on the couches to listen to whatever was about to happen. Beck hushed her down and she crawled up against his chest instead, closing her eyes.

I turned my head back to Tori and Andre while resting my arms on the back of the couch. Cat rose from the floor and sat down beside me just as Tori started singing. It was a beautiful song. Both Tori and Andre were very talented and I enjoyed it to the fullest. At the sime time though, I found myself feeling a little jealous. I wished I had that kind of talent. I guess because talent is also a source of popularity, and popularity was something I still wanted.

The song was obviously a Christmas song, but it wasn't like a cheesy one. This one was actually really good. I looked at Cat to my right and she was bobbing her head along with the music, smiling a bit to herself. Bu then I felt something poke me in the side of my stomach and I looked down. Cat was holding a rectangular-shaped box wrapped in bright pink wrappers towards me. It looked as though she was hiding a bit from the other ones and as I looked up at her face I saw she was smirking.

"Open it when you get home." She whispered and giggled a bit as I took the present from her, putting it between my stomach and the couch. Tori and Andre finished their song and we all applauded, except for Jade who had fallen asleep slumped against Beck. Grateful, that one.

I put the present in my backpack, trying not to show too much of it to anyone else. It had seemed like Cat wanted to keep it a secret, so I did too. When I got home though, opening it was the first thing I did.

I tore off the pink paper with ease and found a box. I opened it only to see it was filled with more paper, balled up into little scrunches and stuffed in the box as if to protect something. I started to pick them up, one little paper-scrunch at a time. And then I saw them. Two cups, one pink and one purple. I smiled to myself and picked them both up by the ear and turning them so I could see all the way around. I noticed small white letters written across them and I turned the cups so I could read it. The smile that cracked on my face when I saw what they said was one of the biggest smiles I've ever smiled. The white letters on the cups formed two simple words. One on each.  
><em><br>__His _and _Hers._


	5. Mermaids and English Breakfast

**AN: Hi…Thanks everyone for reviewing. I thought I'd give a quick answer. **

**When it comes to my grammar; English isn't my native language and I'm still trying to learn. If you spot an error in my language please tell me what it is so I can learn ;)**

**I try to update as often as I can but sometimes it's hard. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious…**

The rest of Christmas break wasn't that much fun since everyone was at different places doing different things. Me myself was in my room drinking bucket loads of tea while planning the next tea party. It was my time to decide and I wanted to do something big and exceptionally awesome. But coming up with something big and exceptionally awesome isn't always that easy... I pondered it for a good while. I thought about it for days and just before school was about to start again, I had gotten a completely genius idea. At least I thought it was.

~~

I picked up Cat outside her house at seven. She was practically beaming as she gave me a big hug.

"How was Christmas break? I asked her awkwardly as she stepped back.

"I went to visit my uncle and uncle!" Cat explained. I already knew that though, because she had told me before she went. "It was so much fun!" She jumped into a long ramble in which she told me every little detail of her holiday, stopping once in a while for one of those little giggles.

I listened patiently even though I can admit I got kind of tired after a couple of minutes. But I didn't want to interrupt her because I knew she wouldn't like that, and I wanted her to be in a good mood. After driving for about twenty minutes I pulled over. We were in the middle of pacific coast highway, on a small little viewpoint facing the sea.

"The ocean!" Cat yelled out. "I love the ocean!"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I figured you'd say that."

She giggled and climbed out of the car and I smiled before starting to get the tea out of my bag.

"Please have a seat." I said formally and motioned towards the hood of my car. She climbed upon it. "Tonight we're serving raspberry tea, a lovely sweet taste sensation."

She giggled at my little act and I started pouring the tea into our cups, the pink _her-_cup for Cat and the purple _him-_one for me.

"I climbed up on the hood of my car as well and sat down next to her, looking out over the ocean listening to the waves as they clashed into the cliffs below us."

"Don't you think it's beautiful?" I asked and she nodded.

"What if we see a mermaid?" she said drawing an exited breath as she looked out over the water, as if she was expecting to see one jumping out of the waves just then.

"There's..." I caught myself mid sentence. I was about to say there was no such thing as mermaids but if she wanted to believe it, I wasn't going to stop her.

"There are a lot of clouds out." I said instead. "That means there is a big chance we'll see one. I heard they like to show themselves on nights like these." I motioned towards the sky to really make her believe me, and I think she did.

"Really?" She said, beaming.

I nodded, slightly wondering if I had taken it too far. She would probably be devastated if we didn't see any mermaids now.

I sipped my tea and looked over at Cat, she had her eyes fixed on the water and was drinking from her cup very slowly. I didn't say anything, just kept watching her as she scouted for mermaids while the sky slowly darkened.  
>After a while I got bored, I was pretty sure we weren't going to see any mermaids and I figured this wasn't even half as much fun for me as it was for Cat. That was when I remembered I had brought the guitar. I jumped of the hood and walked around my car to get it.<p>

"Robbie, where did you go?" I heard Cat yell.

"I'm right here behind the car!" I shouted back and she giggled.

"Kaykay!"

I came back and crawled up to sit beside her again.

"Oh a guitar!" She clapped her hands together, smiling widely.

"Yep! Do you... uh… want to sing something?" I asked her as I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively. I could practically see how the wheels in her head started spinning as she thought. It took her a good while so I started playing a few chords at random as she pondered.

"That's pretty, what song is that?" She asked me and I stopped playing, looking up at her.

"Uh... No song... Just random chords." I said and she smiled, tucking the red hair behind her ear.

"Play them again..."

I started playing and she bobbed her head along with the music while giggling lightly.

Suddenly I had an idea and I started humming a melody to the chords I was playing. Then I put in some lyrics.

_"Here we are me and Cat. __  
><em>_Looking for some mermaids, how cool is that?"__  
><em>  
>She giggled loudly and clapped her hands. "Do more!"<p>

_"And we're gonna drink some tea from our awesome cups.__  
><em>_It's our favourite thing to do and we're never gonna stop!"__  
><em>  
>I played it over and over and after a while Cat joined in and we sat together singing the peculiar little song for a while. Our voices mixed together perfectly and once in a while you could hear the sea as it hit the rocks way below us. As we sung the sky got darker and big clouds were rolling in. We were too caught up with the singing that we didn't even notice and just as we were about to sing the song for probably the 15th time, a loud thunderclap was heard and Cat screeched.<p>

I put down the guitar and looked up at the sky which had grown quite dark during the time we had been there.  
>The thunder boomed once again and Cat jumped. She looked terrified and she was looking up at the sky anxiously.<p>

"Robbie, the thunder scares me." She said weekly and I looked at her. She looked so small and week.  
>I wasn't sure what exactly to say to her so instead I just grabbed her hand to reassure her that she was safe. I think it helped because I could feel her body loosen up a little and she smiled weakly at me.<p>

"Let's go home." I said just as the first raindrop hit my forehead.

A minute later the rain was pouring down and we were soaked before we even had the time to collect all of our things from the hood of the car and get inside it. When we got inside we sat in silence for a while, listening to the raindrops clattering on the roof of the car. It was a peaceful sound. I had always loved it. The thunder was loud now and it boomed once again. Cat whimpered a little so I took her hand again and squeezed it.

"I don't like the rain right now." She said gloomily.

"Oh come on... It's pretty cosy. And we had fun, right?" I asked, looking at her to see if she was going to wipe the frown off her face. After a while it slipped off and she looked me in the eyes smiling slightly.

I looked right back into hers, and for a moment I think I got lost in them. They were just so deep and the color was so pretty. The effect of them together with the clatter of the rain was almost hypnotizing. And the most amazing thing was that she was actually looking back into my eyes too.

After what felt like an hour, but was probably only like a couple of seconds Cat broke the silence.

"Too bad we didn't see any mermaids." And her frown was back.

I chuckled.

"There's always other times."

~~

"Hey guys!" I said as I walked over to Tori and Andre who were chatting casually by Tori's locker. It was the first day of the new semester, and just to prove that I could do it, I had gone without Rex.

"Oh, hey Robbie." Tori greeted me. She was looking really pretty, just as always and she was smiling widely as I approached them.

"Guess what!" Andre said. "There's a new student in our class."

A new student? This could get really interesting. I hadn't been through a lot of new student situations. The most recent one was Tori, and there was no lie in saying that it turned out great. I hoped it would be just as good this time.

"Really, who?"

"She's an exchange student from England." Tori explained. "Her name's Sky."

"Cool!" I said. It sounded good, so far.

"I bet she's a dream girl. A piece of smoking hot salmon." Andre exclaimed with a dreamy look on his face and Tori punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Easy there boy." She chuckled.

"Do they even have salmon in England?" I asked just as Beck and Jade came over to us.

"What's up?" Beck said as he placed himself and Jade, whom he had his arm around, between me and Andre.

"Apparently there's a new student from England in our class." I said and Jade groaned, she really never seemed to be able to take anything other than in a negative way.

"What's wrong with people from England?" Tori asked.

"Jade had to spend the whole holiday with her mom's English cousin and her daughter." Beck explained.

"And It was not a pleasant experience." Jade continued between gritted teeth.

Andre chuckled a little while Tori furrowed her eyebrows and turned away slightly from Jade.

"Well. I think it's exciting and I think we should make her feel at home." Tori said, crossing her arms as if to say that no one could change her mind. She really can't stand not getting what she wanted.

"Make who feel at home." We all turned around to see Cat coming over.

"Hey Little Red!" Andre greeted and we chimed in with our own hellos."

Tori told Cat about the new student and Cat seemed to be just as excited as all of us were, with the exception for Jade who wasn't excited at all.  
>I really wanted to meet the new student. English people were nice, they had awesome accents, and after all, England was the country of Tea. And that couldn't be bad. Because. Let's be honest. I love tea!<p>

We all sat down in Sikowitz's classroom but as he begun the class, no new student could be seen. I looked around desperately to see if there were any new faces in the class. Hopefully hot, as Andre had expressed earlier. But it was just the same old people there.

Suddenly the door flew open and a boy stood panting in the room.

"Hello." He said and the British accent caused everyone to stare. "I'm sorry I'm late. I couldn't find my way."

No one was saying a thing. The classroom was for once in complete silence as we looked at the boy.

"Everybody, this is Sky. He's a new student." Sikowitz explained as he pulled Sky into the room, a big smile on his face. Suddenly Jade snorted loudly.

"But... you're a boy!"

**AN: So what do you think about this one? You may tell me in a review if you like. Otherwise you can just not do it. But it makes me happy. **

**We'll see when the next chapter is up :)**


	6. They make me sick

January rolled by ever so slowly. After a week it felt like we had been in school for almost a month already, and I doubted I was going to make it through this year. Not if it was going to be this slow.

Sky quickly made his way into our little group. The cause of this was probably Tori who had been so eager to make friends with him and invited him to have lunch with us the first day. After that he was just kind of in.

He was very charming, Sky. And unfortunately also very good looking. He was pretty tall, he had dark curly hair. Not the messy curls that I was cursed with but well behaved curls that fell over his for head and eyes, which were dark brown and mysterious. He had the funniest way of dressing. Usually, it was plaid shirts and jeans that he folded at the bottom to reveal a pair of bright colored socks. And from time to time he also wore a bowtie.

Of course, Sky was very popular among the ladies. Not only by the way he looked but also by the way he talked. There seemed to be something with the guys accent that made almost every girl practically pass out right on the spot. Sky didn't seem to notice how wanted he was though. He walked through the corridors as if there weren't 17 girls more or less plainly staring at him. If it had been me I would've started asking people out right away. But he didn't.

At first I thought the girls in our little group weren't actually interested in him in that way. Okay, yeah, Trina had basically thrown herself at him the first day trying to make him love her, and failed miserably too. But not the other ones.

That was of course until that day in the end of January.

I was casually surfing the web just as all normal teenagers do these days, when I saw Cat had uploaded a new video on The Slap. I clicked it and her giggly face immediately appeared on the screen. Next to her was Sky and I looked up at the title of the video again.  
><em>'Cat interviews cute guys'<br>_  
>I suddenly felt my insides twitching a little bit and I wondered briefly why.<p>

"Okay, Sky. Do you know why you're here?" computer screen-Cat asked the puzzled looking Sky.

"Uhm... You told me there was going to be a party here tonight. So I showed up..."

"Oh..." Cat smiled. "Well it is a party."

"But where is everyone?"

"It's just you and me!" Cat yelled and Sky jumped a little in his seat. Cat giggled once more and started to ask him the usual random questions. Sky's confused look grew by the second and so did the uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. By the time the video was almost over I was sure I had eaten something bad.

"Kay." Cat giggled. I could tell she was about to ask her last question because the video looked to be coming to an end. "Do you like tea?"

It was like something exploded inside of me. Was she really asking him that? Him? The guy she had just gotten to know? Was she really asking him about tea?

I felt silly about it, b ut for some reason I'd thought that was kind of our thing, but as I thought about it. Maybe not? And I couldn't just claim it a subject she wasn't aloud to touch if she wasn't with me. She was free to speak about whatever she wanted. To be fair, she hadn't even broken the rules because she hadn't actually told anyone about the tea parties themselves. She was just asking Sky a casual question, nothing to get upset about, right?

"Yes. I love tea." Sky answered, a wide, perfect smile plastered on his face. It was weird enough he hadn't left the room and also the country by now. But smiling? Something was seriously wrong with this guy.

"Me too!" She giggled.

"Me too." I murmured. Then I realized I was in fact talking to a computer screen. Getting crazy now too, was I?

She wrapped up the video and reached over to turn off the camera. Then everything went black.

I wasn't jealous. I couldn't be. We were just friends and this wasn't supposed to make me feel like I had just been stabbed with a knife 700 times. We were just friends, right?

Was I jealous?

Rex was on my arm when I walked into school the next day. For some reason I felt like having him there. It just felt safer. I was confident that what I'd felt the day before had meant nothing. I wasn't jealous. When she'd started talking about tea I'd just felt like she'd broken some kind of hidden promise. But actually, she hadn't. So it was no big deal. And I was definitely not jealous.

Tori and Sky were standing by Tori's locker and I braced myself before walking up to them.

Be cool Robbie. Remember: You're not jealous.

"Hello my peeps." I greeted. Not the coolest way to say hello maybe.

"Looser." Rex said and I stared at him.

"I'm not a looser."

"Yes you are, and that greeting just made it even clearer. Don't you two agree?" Rex asked Tori and Sky. Tori squirmed a little. She was obviously trying to get out of asking the question.

"Of… course not." She said. Sky was chuckling.

"That's hilarious." He said.

"What is?" I asked. "That I'm a looser?"

"No." Sky laughed again. "The puppet act. You're really good."

I saw Tori bite her lip anxiously, preparing herself for the attack.

"I'm not a puppet!" Rex exclaimed loudly and Sky laughed again.

"That's funny."

"Hey Scone-boy!" Sky fell silent. "Shut it." Rex snapped.

Sky looked confused. He seemed to be looking confused pretty often. Maybe he just wasn't used to this kind of weirdness where he came from. Cause one thing was for sure. We weren't normal.

"Sorry, he really gets mad when people call him puppet." I explained.

"Uhm... Don't worry." He said, the confused look still on his face, before anyone could say anything else Jade and Beck walked up to us.

It was funny how they always seemed to enter together, Beck and Jade. I wondered slightly if I was ever going to have that kind of relationship with anyone, where you always come and leave with the other person as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"What's going on?" Beck asked as he walked up to us. Jade came to stand beside him and he casually slipped his arm around her waist.

"Not much." Tori answered with a shrug.

"I thought our psychotic friend Cat would have scared you off by now." Jade said, turning to Sky.

"What are you talking about?" Sky asked, the puzzled expression back on his face. Or maybe it never left.

"Oh come on. Are you saying her little 'party'..." she put quotation marks in the air with her fingers "...yesterday wasn't weird?"

"Maybe at first. But then I actually found it quite endearing."

Now it was all of our turns to look puzzled.

"What?" Tori said and I could only agree. I didn't know of one boy who hadn't run screaming away from us after Cat had invited them to one of her little parties.

"It was charming." He said, smiling and in the corner of my eye I saw Jade furrow her eyebrows.

Suddenly, Tori drew a sharp breath.

"Oh my god! You like Cat don't you?" Her whole face lit up as she looked at Sky. "Don't you?"

"Uhm… I don't know." Sky started but the red tint on his face said otherwise. "I guess she's kind of cute. But we just got to know each other, right?"

"That's so sweet!" Tori was biting her lip, basically jumping up and down with anticipation.

"Alright, calm down." Sky said. He was also smiling right now. He had a beautiful smile. "I don't want to rush things. So please don't say anything. I'm just going to get to know her better and see where things go."

Tori was beaming, Jade looked utterly disgusted and Beck looked at Tori as if she was crazy, though I thought I saw a small smile playing across his lips. Me myself was just staring. The feeling I had just felt in my stomach made it pretty obvious to me.

I was definately jealous.

About a week into February I got sick. Sicker than I had been for a long time. Fever, mean cold and just feeling really tired, I was forced to stay in bed all day. This bothered me a whole lot.

Since I was home I couldn't be in school, and since I couldn't be in school I couldn't keep an eye on Sky and make sure he didn't make a move on Cat.

Yes. I had pretty much accepted the fact that I liked Cat. I didn't really know when it had started, maybe I always had. It was probably this 'you don't know what you've got until you lose it' kind of thing. But I wasn't sure. And as a matter of fact, I hadn't lost her. Yet.

Cat and Sky seemed to get closer by the day. They hung out more. She was actually the one who he hung out the most with out of all of us and I figured there couldn't be much time left until he asked her out. And then it would be too late for me. On the other hand I didn't want to do anything myself. I had tried once before to ask Cat out. I asked her to the Prome, the Hollywood arts prom which, for some stupid reason, had gotten the name 'Prome' instead. I blame Tori for that one. Anyway, it didn't go well and it ended up in me accusing her of lying which she actually wasn't and she being mad at me for over a week before we talked things out.

I didn't want anything like that to happen again, and besides she didn't even like me that way. I figured if I just waited it would wear off, I couldn't do anything stupid and let it ruin our friendship. But at the same time I really didn't want Sky to have her.

Speaking of our friendship Cat and I hadn't had a Tea party in forever. Not since the one with the mermaids and the rain. I was starting to think she had forgotten about the whole thing. She used to be so eager about it, and now she hadn't even hinted towards it in over a month. I guess with Sky coming around our tea parties were now history. And as soon as he asked her out and swept her off her feet she was going to forget I even existed. But what could I do?

I took another sip of the Tea I had made for myself and slid down under my covers even further. I was really not feeling well, and I had been sick for almost four days. I had probably missed a whole lot in school and Sky had probably already taken Cat without me being able to stop it. Being sick sucked.

I put down my cup and closed my eyes, thinking that I could sleep the sickness and the sadness off. But I opened them immediately when I heard a loud banging on my window.

**AN: Short, but kind of important. I hope it wasn't too boring… whatever. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. It really means a lot. Make my day and send me another one? :)**


	7. Try to Fill my cup with your happiness?

**AN: Thanks everyone for your kindness so far. You're all really sweet. Here's the next chapter. Don't tell me it's a bit of a filler, because I know that already… fortunately it is building up to something. So it's not just meaningless crap…**

I looked up and spotted the smiley red head outside my window. Cat was there. In her hands she was holding her tea cup and a thermos which, if I wasn't completely off the rack, was filled with tea. She was knocking lightly on the window and when she saw I was looking at her she smiled and waved at me.

I rose from my bed slowly, dragging my feet behind as I walked over to the window and opened it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, my voice a little raspy from being quite all day. Just then I realized I hadn't looked at myself in the mirror since last night and I quickly drew a hand threw my hair in hopes of getting it less messy.

"We're going to have a tea party!" Cat called out as she climbed inside. If she noticed my terrible bed head, she wasn't saying anything.

"We already had a tea party at my house. We can't do it again..." I said, giving her a look.

She furrowed her eyebrows, and I knew she was thinking hard, maybe trying to find some kind of loophole, or maybe just contemplating to go back home again.

"Actually!" she said after a while. "We have only had a tea-party here, in your room. Not anywhere else in your house."

Loophole then.

"Why are you even here?" I asked. I tried not to make it sound rude, but it kind of did. "I'm really sick."

She looked at me with a face I couldn't really figure out.

"Don't you want me here?" I could hear she was hurt, again she was taking things to personal.

"No, No Cat. I do. I just..." I fell silent. "I was just wondering."

"I missed you in school. You've been gone too long." She explained, a smile forming on her lips and suddenly I felt like kissing them. Those pretty little candy-colored lips. She really made me feel better just by showing up. And that's not just something I'm saying to make you understand how extremely much I like her. I was really feeling better.

"And it's been way too long since we had a tea party anyway." Cat finished and I nodded in agreement. That was true.

"Well I guess we could go out on the balcony..." I said, sighing.

"Grab your cup!" she demanded, pointing towards the cup on my bedside table. "Let's go."

She scurried out of my room and I shook my head slightly before grabbing my cup and following her. I guess she found her way to the balcony on her own. Because when I got there she was already in the middle of setting up the tea party. I walked out and sat down opposite her on the balcony floor.

"So what kind of tea did you bring?" I asked as she poured some of it into my purple cup.

"Chamomile!" She giggled.

"What?" I had honestly never heard of it before.

"I heard Chamomile tea is good if you have a stomach ache." She explained, looking at me with wide eys. Oh Cat.

"Uhm... Cat." I looked at her. "I have a cold."

Suddenly Cat looked devastated. "Oh no!" She cried out. "I brought you the wrong tea."

"Uhm..." I searched desperately to find a way to save the situation. "Actually my stomach is feeling a little... uhm... achy, so I'm actually lucky you brought me the tea."

Immediately her face changed from sad to happy. And I breathed out It seemed to have worked.

"Taste it." She said, clapping her hands together and watching me with anticipation as I took a sip of my tea. It was actually really good so I nodded slowly, giving her an approving smile.

"Good." I stated and she giggled. God I just wanted to grab her and kiss her. But there was no way I could do that so I remained where I was, watching her carefully as she drank her tea. I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell her how I felt? Can you imagine how awkward it would've gotten? I couldn't.

"So what have I missed in school?" I asked her and she put down and she put down her cup and stared off into space as if she was thinking hard. After a while she shook her head.

"Not much." She took another sip of tea. I could tell she was being sincere, but I couldn't be sure of what she considered 'not much'.

"How's everyone?" I asked. I was determined to pry out at least a little bit more information from her.

"Great." She smiled, and then she started laughing hysterically. One of those weird things she did from time to time. Her concentration span wasn't that high. She had a pretty laugh, but I couldn't help but getting annoyed when she interrupted herself like that.

"What is it?" I asked, confused.

"I just..." Cat said but she was laughing too hard to be able to speak properly. "I thought of something Sky told us. It was hilarious."

I felt like someone dropped a giant brick on my head. Of course she was laughing at something Sky had said. Soon, she would fall in love with him, they would get married and it wouldn't be long until she was bearing his children. Or something like that.

"What was the joke?" I asked, trying to be as polite as possible.

Cat started to explain the joke but she lost me after about two sentences into the story. She noticed I didn't understand and she cut herself off.

"You would've understood if you'd been there." She said with a pitiful smile.

I would've understood if I'd been there? That felt great. I was starting to feel sick again. The happiness that had come along with Cat and her hair and her lips and her eyes had slipped off. But really, what should I have been expecting. That they all had just woken up and realized Sky was an idiot and that they liked me way more than him. Not likely. Sky was perfect. I wasn't. All I wanted was for Cat to leave. I didn't need to hear this. I really didn't. All I wanted was to sit and rot in my room, and Cat and Sky could run of too Fairy land and do whatever they wanted. I swallowed the last drops of tea in my cup and cleared my throat.

"Cat, I'm really not feeling well. Maybe you should go."

She blinked sadly a couple of times but she seemed to understand that I just wanted to be alone.

"Kay." She collected her things and rose from the balcony floor.

"Feel better, okay?" She said and I smiled vaguely at her.

"Yeah, okay."

She gave me a quick hug before scurrying off down the stairs. But I wasn't sure if I was going to feel better, because the sickness I had just felt probably had nothing to do with my cold at all.

I went back to school the next day anyway. I was still feeling sick, but I was pretty sure rest wouldn't get me through this. As I had predicted Cat and Sky seemed to have come a lot closer over the past few days and that didn't exactly make me feel better. He was going to take her away from me and I knew he was. He was everything I wasn't. Attractive, Cool, independent and most of all he didn't carry around an obnoxious alter ego on his arm. But I needed Rex. I needed him to feel safe.

I cursed myself for not realizing sooner how much I actually liked Cat. There had been times further back in time when I had thought that maybe, maybe I liked her. But it had always blown over as soon as I set eyes on someone else. I figured it was just the fact that I was desperate. But when Sky came around I understood that I wasn't only in desperate need of a girl. I was in desperate need of one girl in particular. Caterina Valentine.

Speaking of Valentine, Valentine's Day was coming up, and I wasn't even a little excited. I usually did nothing on Valentine's except for drinking tea and wallowing in self-pity. I hadn't planned to do anything different this year but a few days before the 14th that changed.

We were having lunch, just like we always do because... Yeah well, we're growing teenagers and we all like to eat.  
>Today all six of us, plus Sky was at the table eating our quesadillas and salads and drinking our sodas and waters. Cat was playing with her stuffed giraffe. Mr. Longneck.<p>

For some reason I wasn't really fond of the giraffe. It just bugged me. I realized later it was because she had been carrying it when I asked her to prom and was rejected. I mean, who wants to bring back memories like that?

Sky was next to her watching her carefully. There was something in his eyes that I found threatening. It was care. He looked like he cared so much for her, like she was the only one at the table worth looking at. I saw Tori coo as she looked over at them, but she said nothing. Me myself just wanted to throw up all over the place. Was it really necessary for him to look at her like that? He wasn't the only one who cared for her. Seriously.

Suddenly she lifted her giraffe up in front of Sky's face.

"This is Mr. Longneck." She giggled. "Say hi."

Sky chuckled lightly.

"You've told me twice already." He said with a charming smile. Stupid Sky and his charming smile. Anything to make her fall for him, huh? Why didn't he just give her a ring right away?

She giggled again. Why'd she have to giggle so much? It was really only cute when she was around me, or our other friends. Basically around everyone who wasn't Sky.

The worst thing was that I couldn't really hate Sky. He was a good guy. Probably better for Cat than I could ever be. I tried really hard to find something wrong with him. But the only flaw I could find was that he drank his tea with milk in it. Who does that?

I just didn't want him to have her. I wanted Cat. And as I looked at her and Sky again, being all smiley towards each other I realized I couldn't just sit back and watch this happen. I had to do something.

And that was where my plan started to form: My plan of winning Cat's heart. Because honestly, didn't I know her better than that ridiculous English boy? That's right. I did.

And I was going to use that in my advance.

I knew Cat loved pretty and romantic stuff, I knew she loved stuffed animals and most important. I knew she loved tea. So basically, I was going to show up at her house Valentine's Day with some stuffed toy to match her giraffe and a big thermos with some sweet tea in it. And then I was just going to tell her. Easy as pie! Or easy as shortbread cookies, because they go better with tea.

**AN: Thanks again for reading. Review if you feel like you've got a minute to spare and would like to make me happy. **


	8. Valentine's for Valentine

**AN: Sorry this has taken a while… But I'm pleased to tell you I'm working on some other stuff right now…**

I woke up on Valentine's Day feeling kind of nervous. Was I really doing this? Was I really going to tell Cat how I felt? And was I really going to tell her today? I got up and tried to eat some breakfast but I wasn't able to swallow more than half a toast and my usual cup of Tea.

I was still nervous as I got dressed and just as nervous when I walked out the door and got into my car. This was it. This was the day. Bear or burst. Today I was telling Cat how I felt. As I drove I started thinking about what I was going to say to her when I finally got there. _Oh my god. What was I going to say to her?___

'Hi Cat. I just came to say I have a huge crush on you and I want you to be my future wife.'

Or maybe not. A good thing might be to start it off gentle. Not say too much too soon. Just be cool about it. I began formulating sentences in my mind as I drove.  
><em><br>__"__Cat. There's something I want to tell you and I've been meaning to tell you for a while.'  
><em>  
>Good. Not to too much. Continue the same way.<p>

_'It's just that, lately, I have realized something and I think I should tell you before anyone else does.'___

Or maybe I should skip that last part. I didn't want to give her any reason to think there was someone else out there wanting her too. Even if there actually was.

'Lately, I have realized something.'

I could almost see the confused look on her face as I made up the fake conversation in my head. Maybe I should start cutting to the chase.

'Cat. You're the prettiest girl I know.'

Too shallow?

'Cat. You're the most amazing girl I know. And I really, really like you.'

I sighed; wondering if that was the proper thing to say.

'Cat. I hope you don't think I'm a total weirdo for telling you this. But I really like you. As more than a friend...'

I bit my lip as I pulled over by the store I knew sold what I was looking. 'Maggie's Tea-shop'. And for a moment I allowed myself to take a break from trying to figure out a good thing to say to Cat. I walked in and looked around. It was a small shop, completely empty. I didn't really feel like looking like an idiot searching for what I wanted in the over full shelves. So I walked over to the counter and smiled weakly at the old lady sitting there.

"May I help you?" She beamed.

"Yes. I'm wondering if you have any blue tea." I asked, smiling a nervous smile.

"Yes of course. Just wait right here and I'll be back in a second." She said happily disappearing into the depths of the store.

'Ever since we started having our Tea-parties we have gotten a lot closer. And it made me realize just how much I like you and how much I want to be with you.'

The old lady reciprocated from the back and gave me the bag of blue tea.

"You look nervous my dear. Is something bothering you?" She said with a smile.

Her question startled me. I found it weird for a stranger to ask me about my personal life. But she was old, so it might be natural for her. I shook my head, smiling.

"Let me guess. It's a girl, right?" she eyed me cautiously. "Or a boy perhaps?"

I looked at her. "No... no... Girl."

"I knew it." The woman smirked as she told me the prize of the tea.

I gave up. There was just something about the woman that told me I could count on her. And that she might even have a few good advice.

"I like her a lot." I explained. "And I'm planning on telling her tonight."

"Ah, classic." she said, smiling as she pressed the buttons on her old fashioned cash register. "Is the tea for her?"

I nodded and the woman laughed.

"Most boys would buy their girl flowers or chocolate for Valentine's day. How come you're choosing tea?" She looked utterly curious and I found myself actually wanting to tell her, even though I had just met her.

"It's a long story really..." I started, not sure how to explain.

"What's your name, dear?" she asked me.

"I'm Robbie."

"It's a pleasure meeting you." She said. "So tell me... Tea?"

I took a deep breath and started to explain to her all about my post on the slap, how Cat got sad because she wasn't invited and how I surprised her with the special Tea party. I explain how it had evolved to something more and I even told her about the cups Cat had got us for Christmas. Before i knew I had also told her about Sky and how when he entered the picture I realized how much I liked Cat and how I didn't want him to have her. When I was finished the lady just looked at me.

"You're a really sweet boy Robbie and I wish you good luck." She smiled at me and patted my hand lightly. "She's lucky to have someone care for her this much."

"Thanks." I said.

As I walked back to my car I felt weird. Had I just poured out my entire relationship with Cat to a woman I didn't know even by the name? Or...I looked back at the teashop. Maybe I did know her name. She must be Maggie.

I sat back into the car and started it, still thinking about what had just happened and how strange, yet completely satisfying it felt. I actually felt braver now. I drove around town picking up all of the other stuff I would need for the evening. Pink scented candles, a couple of bright red roses which had the exact color of her hair, and last but not least a small stuffed toy in shape of a turtle. Because that was the only thing they had left at the store I went to, and I was running short of time. Back at the house I picked up my phone to text Cat. At first I had wanted it to be a surprise, but then I realized I didn't want her to make plans.

Tea party tonight. I'll pick you up at 8.

The usual text. I hesitated a little before pressing send, and when I did I felt the nervousness starting to grow in my stomach. I collected all of the stuff I had bought and put them in my backpack. I placed the Blue Tea on top and I kept my cup outside of the bag too make sure it didn't break.

Just before I was leaving I remembered I had texted Cat and I checked my phone to see if she had answered.

She had.

_Sorry Robbie. I have plans :(_

I felt something twitch in the pit of my stomach. Plans? On Valentine's Day? There is only one thing you do if you have plans on Valentine's day.  
>I took a deep breath. Maybe not. Maybe she and Tori just decided they were going to eat ice-cream and watch romantic movies, giving they were both single. That was a very plausible reason. If I was a single girl on Valentine's Day I would definitely eat ice cream with my friends. And there were probably thousands of other reasons too. Cat could be doing anything. Just because it was Valentine's Day it didn't have to mean that she was with <em>him.<em>

I put down my bag and sighed loudly. So much for telling Cat about my feelings... I slumped back on my bed and I must've dozed off for a minute. But when I woke up I was still feeling just as disappointed and sad as before. I picked up the Blue Tea and stared at it.

"What do I do with you now?" I asked the Tea bag before I realized what I was doing, throwing it away across the room. Talking to a bad of Tea, what kind of crazy person was I becoming? I sat down at my desk and opened up my laptop. Cat had posted something on the slap and I suddenly felt eager to see what it was. Maybe it would tell what she was doing.

_Sky just surprised me with Tea and cookies. Such a wonderful Valentine's day.__  
><em>  
>I felt my heart sink and at the same time a bubbling rage build up inside of me. I stood up, furious. Furious with me, with Sky, with Cat. I just needed to throw something. I set eyes on the little purple Tea cup on my bedside table. It was just standing there, mocking me in all its purple tea cup glory. I hated the cup, hated it more than anything. I picked it up and threw it straight at the opposite wall, watching it break into pieces, hearing it clatter as it fell to the floor. And when I looked at the shattered cup;<p>

I realized what I had done.

**Thanks for reading. As always; reviews make me smile.**


	9. Revenge isn't as tasty as tea

**Yeah, hello there. Here's chapter number nine. **

I was angry. Angrier than I had been for a long while. I wanted to shout and throw rocks at people. When Tori asked me what was wrong I was so close to yelling at her. But I kept my mouth shut and heard Rex tell her how I was just bummed because I was such a looser.

Rex was partly right. I was angry with myself because I hadn't done anything sooner and now I wasn't even close to letting Cat know how I felt. And I couldn't either. _Because you don't hit on another guys girlfriend._

Right. Cat and Sky were in a relationship now. Or at least I guess they were. And as soon as I saw them together I didn't just want to throw rocks. I wanted to throw boulders.

I was mad at Cat for some reason. I don't know why. I just was. And there was no way of changing my mind. I wanted to get revenge on Cat. Revenge on what? I didn't know. I just wanted her to feel as bad as I did. I knew it was stupid, and that I should've been happy because she was happy. But I just couldn't be. Not when I was feeling so useless.

I did know exactly how to get revenge on Cat. And unfortunately I did set my plan into motion. On Friday afternoon I texted everyone, except Cat and Sky, to come to my house for a little movie night. I purposely did it after school, so that no one would accidently let slip to Cat what we were doing. She didn't need to know. I just needed to feel like I had done something bad to her too.

Tori, Andre, Jade and Beck showed up at seven and I led them into the living room.

"Will you start the movie." I asked Beck and he nodded. " And I'll go get the refreshments."

"Refreshments?" I heard Tori say in a questioning voice as i walked back into the kitchen, but I didn't care. This was going to be fun.

A while into the movie Tori suddenly poked me in the shoulder.

"Where is Cat by the way?" She asked and I swallowed.

"Uh...She... She had plans." I said, turning my head back to the screen. Where a buff looking guy was just throwing himself into a dangerous car chase.

"Funny. Because I just got a text from her saying she was home alone and _bored."_ Tori stated, raising an eyebrow at me.

I felt my palms starting to get sweaty and I once again turned to Tori.

"Really? There must have been some sort of misunderstanding then."

"I'm texting her to come over." Tori said, looking back at her phone.

"I.. I really don't think you should be doing that... I mean she..."

"Too late Robbie." Tori smiled and I felt the panic raising in my chest. Now Cat was going to be mad at me. Okay, yeah. I was mad at her, but that didn't mean I wanted her to be mad at me too.  
>I tried to go back to watching the movie, but all I could think about was how angry she was going to be with me, and how bad this had gone.<p>

"Aw." Tori said after a while. "Cat's not coming. Looks like something came up."

There it was. And I knew it. Cat was furious.

~~

I saw her red hair from the corner of my eye just as I opened my locker. I quickly shoved Rex in it and started chasing after her.

"Cat! Cat!" I yelled as I run and she started walking faster as she saw me. "Cat please stop!"

She didn't stop. And at that moment I knew she wasn't going to talk to me for a good while. If ever. I had done something which in her eyes was unforgivable and I wasn't going to be able to fix this with a simple knock on her door and a thermos filled with her favorite tea. I wasn't going to be able to repair this. Just as I hadn't been able to repair the shattered cup, which pieces was currently in a box under my bed. I had ruined it.

Cat didn't talk to me for weeks and our friends soon started to realize something was wrong. Both Tori and Beck and Andre asked me what was going on, but I didn't know what to tell them. So I just said that it was nothing and that she was going to get over it soon. But she didn't. And even though we were forced to hang out almost every day because our mutual friends were basically the only friends who accepted us for who we were, we didn't talk. Rex was back on my arm on a daily basis. I didn't feel safe to go anywhere without him now and i wondered briefly if it had anything to do with Cat. But I decided against it. Cat and Sky were still together and their relationship seemed to be moving along great. Right now I was basically prepared to throw a whole mountain, if I would've had the strength, that is.

One day about a month after the incident I was driving around in my car for no reason. I had started doing so right after she stopped talking to me. I didn't really know why, but I guess it was an excellent way to escape reality. Anyway, I was out driving when I passed a store on my right and I suddenly pulled over. Walking into Maggie's teashop I asked myself exactly what I was doing. But I honestly had no idea.

The bell rang as I stepped into the little shop and Maggie looked up from behind the counter. She smiled in recognition when she saw me.

"If it isn't young Robbie." She said. "Come to get more tea for your special girl?"

"Actually no." I said and i suddenly felt like turning around and walking out of the store. I was just about to when her calm voice stopped me.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Maybe that was exactly what I wanted. Talk. I turned back around and looked at Maggie. She had friendly brown eyes and short, curly grey hair. She was a little wrinkly, but not a lot. If I had to say how old she was I would guess just under 70.

"Yeah... Maybe I do." I said and she nodded.

"Can I interest you in a cup of tea?" She asked as she motioned for me to sit down on one of the high chairs at the right side of the counter. I suddenly realized this wasn't only a place where they sold tea, but also a place where they served it.

She disappeared for a while to the back of the store and when she came back she was holding two cups of smoking hot tea.

"Tell me, Robbie." She said as she sat down on the other side of the counter and once again I found myself pouring my heart out to this woman and not feeling weird about it at all. When I was finished she looked at me with an understanding look.

"Do you want her to forgive you?" She asked me, eyeing me with her dark brown eyes. They reminded me a little of Cat's eyes, but just the color.

"Of course I do." I said, almost offended by the question.

"Then you at least have got to try and apologize." She stated.

"She won't forgive me." I said glumly.

"You don't know that. If anything you may have caused more damage waiting this long. But I still think it's fixable."

"Really?" I looked at her and she nodded.

"Really."

I checked the time and it hit me I had been there for over an hour.

"I should be going." I said. "Thanks Maggie."

"Not to worry Robbie. Let me know how it goes, will you?"

I smiled weakly at her.

"Sure." 

I wanted to apologize to Cat, but the thing was I really didn't know how to do it. All the same I was still a little angry with her although by now I was more forcing myself to be mad at her then really being mad at her. It just wasn't easy hating someone you actually like, like a lot.

I wasn't able to tell Cat I was sorry for another week and a half, and when that time had passed I came to the realization I would never be able to tell her to her face. I was too much of a coward. So, One day at school I walked up to her locker and taped the note to it. I had written it the night before and it was just four words long. I didn't know if it was going to work. But as Maggie had said, it was worth a try.

_'Please forgive me Cat.'_

**I have a Christmas wish for you all okay. See, I've kind of lost interest in this story and I think maybe if you give me some reviews it will get better. So as a gift why don't you drop one down there, it won't take long and in return you might get a little quicker updates and also a much better story…**

**Lots of love.**


	10. Maggie Times Two

**AN: Hey! First of all I just want to thank you all sooo much for all the lovely reviews I've been getting. Lately I've really been doubting whether this was as good as I thought in the beginning, but you kind of made me feel more confident about it. So thank you. Here's the next chapter. **

It didn't help. Cat still wasn't talking to me. Though I caught her glancing at me from time to time over the next few days. Other than that, there was really no progress. For some reason it made me even angrier knowing that she wouldn't forgive me. It wasn't like Cat. It was her natural instinct to think the best of everyone, and to forgive them when they asked her too. This wasn't Cat. But honestly, I didn't think there was much I could do. I deserved it, didn't I?

The first time I saw them kiss was that Wednesday in the middle of March. She was standing on her tippy toes with her arms around his neck and he was smiling brightly as he pecked her on the lips. It made feel sick, and I think she saw me turn on my heels and walk the other way. Because she gave me a look that afternoon. I couldn't really figure out what the look meant. She just looked at me, and I looked back. And for the first time in forever I actually felt that we communicated on some weird level, even though she pretended that it never happened afterwards.

All the while I was starting to go see Maggie more and more often. This caused my friends to wonder where I disappeared to in the afternoons so they asked me.

"Seriously Robbie." Tori said. "Where are you going?"

"Nowhere!" I exclaimed, annoyed.

"Yes you are! Tell me!" Tori was known for her impatient personality, and I knew she wouldn't give up before I at least told her something.

"Fine! I'm going to meet with a friend."

Jade snorted and I gave her a look.

"Yeah, I do have friends other than you guys."

"Right." Jade said sarcastically and I scowled at her. "What's his name?"

"_Her_ name is Maggie." I said with a cocky smile and Jade snorted again.

"You're meeting with a girl?" Tori said excitedly. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Uhm... I don't know. I just. I wanted to wait a while to... introduce you." The best thing probably would've been to tell them that Maggie was in fact a 70 year old woman. But I felt that Jade would only make too much fun of me, so I decided not to correct them.

Believe me when I say it was a huge mistake. Before I knew it everybody was asking me to meet Maggie. The girl I was seeing. And I didn't have the guts to tell them who she actually was in fear of getting picked on until the day I died. So I kept saying how Maggie was busy. Lying. Lying. Lying.

If you didn't know already, lying doesn't exactly make you feel good about yourself. In fact it makes you feel just about the opposite. But I felt obligated to continue. I mean, what would they say if I told them the truth at that point. It had been going on for too long.

Tori was getting more and more pushy on the whole Maggie thing and I honestly didn't know what to do. So I started searching for girls who could be willing to be my fake girlfriend. If only for a couple of hours. At first, I looked for someone good-looking. Someone who would take the others by storm, maybe even make Cat a little jealous. But I soon ruled out that option. I should've known there wasn't one single girl on the face of this planet who wanted to go out with me. Even less a good looking one.

But I kept searching, lowering the bar a little bit and suddenly I knew who I needed. Margareth Doyle.

In middle school we shared almost all of our classes, but she, talentless as she was, didn't make it into Hollywood arts. She was the perfect choice, giving that her name was the same as Maggie's, and if i didn't remember it wrong. She did actually have a crush on me when we were smaller.

It didn't take me long to find her, internet really could do anything these days, and I was surprised to see that she was willing to go on a date with me. I found it appropriate to at least meet the girl before I introduced her to my friends.

I didn't feel good about the whole thing. But you've got to do what you've got to do, right?

~~

My stomach twitched as I saw the skinny, sandy-blonde girl come walking towards me. She actually looked quite pretty, prettier than I remembered her to be, dressed in a purple dress and leggings. Her hair tied back in a ponytail. She still had braces, just like when we were kids. But they kind of fit her. She wasn't a 10. But she wasn't ugly.

"Hi Robbie." She smiled. Her voice was loud and squeaky and she looked more than happy to see me. It felt weird. I hadn't seen her in over three years. But she obviously didn't even find it awkward.

"Hi Maragareth." I said squirming a little. "Shall we go inside?"

I motioned towards the café at the side of the street. It was a modern café with colorful chairs and white sterile walls. The staff was young and dressed completely in black. It wasn't very cozy. But it was okay for a first, and in this case also a last date. We ordered and sat down at a table in the far corner. And then we started talking.

Maragareth was just as I remembered her. Pushy, needy, loud and annoying, she resembled Trina slightly except that Maragareth wasn't as full of herself as Tori's big sister. But I managed to bear with it. I really needed her to introduce to Tori and the others. I knew it was wrong in every way possible but when were my morals ever high enough for me to care?

Okay... I heard how that sounded. I was definitely changing and becoming a better person and all...

After this.

When we'd been talking for almost an hour, and I'd considered shooting myself a couple of times we decided to go. I told her I would call her. And that wasn't a lie. I was going to call her, introduce her to my friends and then I was going to let her down easily and tell her why we couldn't work out. And try not to make her feel too bad. Because I sure did feel bad.

~~

"So do you want to meet Maggie or..?" I asked the group. We were waiting for Sikowitz to come and teach us, but he was late.

Tori clapped her hands.

"Yes! When?" She squealed, the other ones murmured a little, implying they didn't care that much about this.

"I don't know." I shrugged.

"Tell you what." Tori said. "We're having a small party at my house this Saturday. You should bring her."

"Why are you having a party again?" Beck turned to Tori.

"Oh Trina just wants an opportunity to hit on guys." Tori sighed. "But you're all invited."

"I love parties!" Cat exclaimed and Sky smiled and put her arm around her waist.

Ugh… would he stop that.

"We'll be there." Beck smiled as Jade rolled her eyes.

"Me too." Andre winked at Tori.

"Yeah Sure. And I'll bring Maggie."

"You sure will!" Tori wiggled her eyebrows just as Sikowitz entered the room.

"Good morning class!"

~~

"So... Everybody. This is Maggie."

We were at Tori's party. There were actually quite a few people there. I guessed you should give most of the cred for that to Tori. I really doubted Trina was the flame that drew the moths. I was just introducing Maggie to my friends. They all greeted her politely, but after that only Tori and Andre cared to stay and chat with her.

"So how long have you to been going out?" Tori asked.

I cut in before Maggie could do so and ruin everything. "Uhm… A while."

"Okay..." Tori said, looking a little taken a back my eagerness to answer her question.

We chatted for a while. I was basically the only one answering questions, because I was scared Maggie would say anything that would blow my covers. All the while I was trying to keep an eye on what Sky and Cat were doing. Up to this point they had only been chatting casually on the couch. She was laughing and looking so happy.

As I looked over at them I remembered the last time Cat and I had been on that couch. Christmas. When she gave me the cup. The cup I threw at the wall. The cup that lay broken in a box under my bed.

Tori snapped me back to reality with another question and I found myself wanting to get out of there.

The party rolled along. Me and Maggie danced and talked. At one or two occasions I found myself actually enjoying it, but then I just looked over and saw Cat and Sky at the other side of the room, kissing and I was back to being moody and wishing this party would end soon.

About two hours or so into the party Maggie and I were sitting on the stairs. We weren't talking, which I found a lot more comfortable than having to listen to her whiny voice. But after a while she grabbed my wrist and pulled me up off the stairs.

"Maggie what are you doing?" I asked. But she kept quiet and dragged me across the room and out the back door to the little patio. A few people were standing out there, talking or kissing and Maggie dragged me right passed them.

"Maggie…what?"

She still didn't answer, but she stopped abruptly. We had gone behind a couple of bushes. We weren't far from the patio, but it still felt as though this was a more private place. Suddenly a feeling of panic struck me. What was she doing? Was she going to kiss me now? Was that why she had dragged me out here? I really didn't want to kiss her. I couldn't kiss her. I had to tell her.

"Look Maggie I..."

She interrupted me with a light peck on the lips and I felt my insides twitch. This wasn't right.

"Maggie I have to tell you something." I said.

"In know." she smirked.

"You... what?" That little smile was seriously confusing. Why did she look like that?

"I know you like Cat."

"How... How did you...How?" I couldn't even speak properly. Was it that obvious? If she could see it, could the other ones see it too? Did Cat know? If she did I was so screwed.

"You've been looking at her all evening. I see these kind of things."

I sighed.

"I don't like Cat..." I said and when she gave me a disapproving look I knew she wasn't going to be fooled.

"I love her."

Yeah. There it was. I loved Cat Valentine. And no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop myself.

Margareth smiled.

"Is it really that easy to tell?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No... I guess I just have a gift for seeing stuff like that."

"Oh..." I felt guilty. "I'm really sorry Maggie. I didn't want it to be like this. I just. I messed up real bad."

"Robbie." She looked me in the eyes. "Don't worry. I actually knew from the beginning this wasn't going to work out. And to be honest. I think you're kind of annoying."

I laughed. "Right back at you."

I don't know why we found it funny. We had just insulted each other. If it had been a normal conversation we probably would've gotten angry and started screaming at each other by now. But we were just laughing.

"Do me a favor Robbie." Maggie said, suddenly serious.

I nodded.

"Don't ruin it for Cat. If you really love her then you should just be happy she's happy." She smiled again and stroked my arm slowly.

"It'll be alright."

And at that moment, I actually didn't think Maggie was that bad anymore.

**AN: Believe it or not. This story is coming to its end. Hope you liked this chapter. Review if you like. But as you know; They make me awfully happy.**


	11. Talk

**AN: Were close to the end people. Very close. Enjoy.**

**(Also if anyone of you read my New Year's eve fic I decided to delete that cause it sucked…)**

**Like I said. Enjoy.**

I knew Maggie told me to be happy because Cat was happy. But the thing was that the weeks following the party, Cat didn't seem happy at all. This bothered me, but since Cat still wasn't talking to me I couldn't ask her about it.  
>I really wished I could talk to her about it, because truth be told she looked miserable and no one else but me seemed to notice. It wasn't okay. Not okay at all. I tried sending her looks, but they were never returned. One time I even got to the point where I picked up my phone to text her, but I never did. It's one thing seeing the person you love happy with someone else. It hurts, it feels like a million tiny daggers are stabbing at your heart all at once. But it's even worse seeing the person you love being miserable with someone else, and knowing there is nothing you can do.<p>

I considered telling Tori, but I changed my mind. She wouldn't understand. Nobody would understand. I swiftly remembered the tea-party at the park. "_I figured maybe you would understand me since we're the two people that no one seems to get."_

Those were the exact words that Cat spoke that night. And I knew that they were true. We understood each other. I doubted anyone else got her like I did. I doubted that anyone else ever tried to imagine what it was like in Cat-world. I doubted anyone else even knew there was a Cat-world. But I knew. And I knew that right now, there wasn't peace in Cat-world. And someone needed to send help.

March had turned into April. Almost one and a half months since Cat last talked to me. Was this even happening? I was still catching her stealing glances at me once in a while. But just like everything else these days they were a lot sadder than before.

Okay so yeah. Cat was still giggly and laughy. But I could tell she wasn't happy. It was like she was acting. To be fair, acting was what we were supposed to do at this school. But that was in classes. Not outside of them.

She kept smiling, even though she was hurting on the inside. From what? I didn't know. But I wanted to find out. I had to find out. She couldn't walk around being miserable like this.

I considered talking to Maggie too. The tea-shop Maggie, that is. But I was afraid to face her giving everything that had happened with all the lying and Maggie the second and stuff. I knew old Tea-shop Maggie wouldn't be very happy with me.

So I kept quiet and hoped for Cat to get happier soon. Maybe it was just something small and insignificant and maybe it would go away after a while. I hoped so.

But it didn't and I got more and more worried about her. At last I decided to go and talk to Maggie anyway. She could say what she wanted. I needed to ask her what to do. 

I walked into the shop and looked around. It was empty.

"Maggie?" I called out cautiously, walking a little further in.

She emerged from the back and smiled brightly when she saw me.

"I was just wondering if I'd ever get to see you again."

I chuckled a little bit and sat down by the counter.

"So what brings you?" She asked. Taking a seat opposite of me and looking at me.

"I need advice." I said, sighing.

"Figures." she laughed a little but then asked me to tell her and I did. I didn't mention the part about Maggie II, but I did tell her about how Cat had looked so sad the past weeks. And I told her that I would basically do anything to make her happy again. Absolutely anything. When I was finished she nodded slowly, and then she started talking.

"Robbie. When you say that you would do anything to make her happy, does that include letting her stay with Sky and not bothering them about it, no matter how hard it is for you?

"Yes. I mean... I didn't before. All I wanted was to have her by myself, but now all I really want is for her to be happy." I said.

"So you love her?" Maggie asked. A small smile starting to form on her lips.

"How did you..?" I asked and Maggie cut me off.

"You just proved it dear." She smiled again.

I nodded. "But what should I do about her being sad. She's still not talking to me."

Maggie frowned. She looked like she was thinking really hard about something.

"I really don't know Robbie." she said. "You've already ruled out talking to your other friends and I don't think there is much else you can do. Either you try to talk to her again. For real this time. Or you wait it out."

It was that simple. 

_'I really need to talk to you.'_

I pressed send and took a deep breath. Maybe it would work out. Maybe I could convince Tori there was actually something not right with Cat right now, even if Tori couldn't see it.

'_Sounds serious. What's up?'  
><em>  
>The school day was almost over. I had stayed in the school library to study. I didn't want to ask Tor more via text message. So I texted back.<p>

_'Can I come over later? Wanna ask you in person.'  
><em> 

The library could seriously not get more boring at the moment. I could not focus on studying anyway. I was way too nervous about what was going to happen when I told Tori. I was packing up my stuff when I heard it.

"No. Don't go. I didn't mean it like that. Sky!" It was Cat's voice. She was screaming and her yell was followed by several hushes from other people in the library. Had she been here with Sky without me knowing? And had he just left her there? What was going on?

I couldn't take it. I had to go find her and find out what was wrong. If I was lucky maybe I'd be able to fix this without Tori's help. Or else she'd yell at me too, but maybe I would at least know what happened.

I collected my things and went for where I had heard her voice. I rounded a bookshelf and there she was. Back against the wall between to shelves of books. Her knees at her chin and her forehead on her knees. Her red hair hanging down around her and her body shaking from silent sobbing.

I think she could feel someone was there because she suddenly looked up and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. She looked a little surprised, but then her facial expression changed and she suddenly looked mad.

"I heard you and I..." Suddenly I remembered she was angry with me, and I lost track of what I was saying.

"I want to be alone." She said, not looking at me, but at one of the books in the shelf beside her.

"Please Cat... Just… What's wrong?"

"No. Go away."

I was just about to do as she told me. But then I changed my mind. She could be mad at me forever if that was the case. But I could just not tolerate her being sad. So instead of turning around and walking away, I sat down on the floor next to her.

She looked over at me and then she started to cry again. Even heavier this time and I found myself in one of those situations where you have absolutely no idea what to do. I'm so bad at comforting and since I was pretty sure Cat basically wanted to kill me at the moment, I had no clue of what was the best way to do it.

"I...I..." Cat was trying to say something. But instead she broke down on my arm, sobbing like a little child. And since she had been the one initiating it, I let her.

"I think I just broke up with Sky." She said after a while, when the sobbing had reduced a little.

I knew I should've been cheering and being really, really happy, but the truth was that I wasn't happy at all. Because when I looked at Cat, and her smudged out mascara and puffy red eyes all I wanted was for her to not feel this way. And if breaking up with Sky did make her feel like this, then I didn't want her to do that.

"Why?" I asked and Cat sat up a little straighter.

"He told me..." she was stumbling upon her words. "He told me he loved me."

Suddenly I was feeling really confused.

"Isn't that a good thing?"

She took a deep, shaky breath and shook her head. I got even more confused.

"But..?"

"Robbie do you remember the party at Tori's a couple of weeks ago?" She asked, her voice a little steadier now.

"Of course" I replied.

"I heard you and Maggie talk behind those bushes."

Suddenly my breath caught in my throat.

"You heard... everything?"

She nodded.

"And I realized something. And it's been bugging me ever since and when Sky told me he loved me I just couldn't keep it in anymore?"

I wasn't sure of what she was talking about. But Cat's stories rarely made sense. This was actually making a lot of sense in comparison to what she usually said.

"So what I'm trying to say is that... I think maybe I love you too a little bit." She said it really fast, but I still managed to catch every word. And everything else seemed to stop. My heart as well as the time just froze. What did she just say? Did she tell me she loved me too? But I thought...

"I thought you hated me for not inviting you to movie night and all."

She shook her head.

"As much as I wanted to I could never hate you Robbie. I was really mad. I'm still mad actually. Instead of hiding you could've actually talked to me before it was too late, and then get crazy with jealousy."

I honestly was in a lack of words. I didn't think I had ever heard Cat say something this meaningful. Maybe with an exception for the time when she asked me if I thought she was weird.

"I'm sorry Cat." Was all I managed to say.

She nodded

"I ruined your shirt." She said with a half-smile. I looked down at my sleeve to see it all messed up and black with mascara stains.

"That's okay." I smiled and then we just sat in silence for a while.

Suddenly realized this was actually not that bad. Cat was talking to me again. And suddenly there was hope. We could fix this.

"Robbie?" Cat asked and I looked over at her where she sat with her back against the wall. Black around the eyes and all puffy from all the crying. But still the most beautiful thing in the world. "Do you think we can ever go back to the way we were?" 

This was the question I was also currently asking myself. I honestly didn't know. A lot had happened these last few weeks and I wondered if we could ever be the same again. Sure we could forgive, but could we forget? Just because she loved me and I loved her didn't mean we would automatically become a happy couple. Not after this.

"You know what?" I said after thinking a little while. "Why don't we talk about it over a cup of tea?"

And then she smiled and I knew that even if we didn't get together. That was okay. Because she was my best friend and she loved me, and I loved her. And whatever happened we could work it out.

**AN: Sooo, thoughts? Please?**


	12. Epilogue

**AN: Hello. This is the last chapter. sad.**

**Anyway. Here it goes.**

I pulled over outside of her house and got out. Walking up to the door I had a good feeling in the pit of my stomach. Tonight was definitely going to be a good one. I knocked on the door and a moment later the big scruffy man who was Cat's older brother opened it.

"Oh it's you." He said dully, but he didn't even have time to call Cat's name before she came rushing down the stairs.

"Hi Robbie!" She yelled as she jumped down the two remaining steps and advanced towards me, smiling widely before throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me quickly.

"Are you ready?" I asked when she let go.

"Of course I am." She giggled.

"Good." I smiled.

"Byee!" She called into her house so that everyone would know she was going. Then she walked ahead of me out onto the porch.

We sat down in my car and she directly started interrogating me.

"Where are we going? What tea did you bring? I want to know Robbie come on!"

I chuckled at her eagerness. But shook my head to all of her questions. Didn't want to spoil this.

"Cat, I want it to be a surprise. We won't have another 1 year tea-aversery ever again, right?"

She nodded, let out another small giggle and turned on the radio instead. Once again she was playing around, switching the stations and laughing loudly while doing so. If I could, I would've rather ditched the road and just watched her instead. But I didn't get my license because of watching pretty girls, and I honestly didn't want to ruin this evening by crashing into a tree so I kept my focus forward.

I drove for a good while during which Cat only laughed and played with the radio. When I finally pulled over she was almost crying of laughter. I looked at her and all I could do was just break into a huge smile and stay that way. She was just incredible.

"Are we there?" Cat asked.

"Nope." I said. "I need you to put this on."

I held up a black blindfold for her to put over her eyes and she gasped slightly.

She put the blindfold over her eyes while, true to character giggled slightly and exclaiming a loud "Yay."

When the blindfold was safe and secure over her eyes and I'd made sure she couldn't see anything I started driving again.

When I pulled over the second time Cat was basically jumping in her seat out of excitement.

"Can I take it off?"

"Not yet." I answered as I got out of the car and walked around it to let her out.

I then led her way to our final destination and untied the blindfold so she could see.

"Wow..." Was all she said and I smiled.

"Do you like it?"

"I love it!" She screamed.

We were in Maggie's Teashop. The back room. The walls were covered with shelves on which different kinds of tea were lined up and in the middle was a small table and on each side of it an old fashioned chair for us to sit in. On the table was a big Teapot filled with hot water and it was steaming slightly. Christmas lights hung all over across the room, even though it was the complete wrong season. Maggie had helped me put them up the same day. According to her it was the coziest thing there was.

Cat was jumping up and down beside me.

"Calm down Cat." I laughed as I led her up to the table. "Have a seat."

"This is so cute!" She exclaimed as I began pouring the tea into our cups. "I love it!"

"I knew you would. And I really wanted today to be special." I smiled.

It was true. I really wanted it to be special. Not because I was planning it to be romantic or because I wanted to make a move or anything. (To be honest it was kind of romantic.) But because it was exactly one year since we had begun this whole thing and because this whole thing was special to me and our friendship. And I wanted her to know that this meant a lot me.

We drank our tea and we talked and we had a great time. Ever since I confronted her in the library things had started going back to normal. It wasn't completely back to the way it was before. I don't think neither Cat nor me would ever fully forget what had happened during this last year. But we chose not to think about it. After my apology to Cat she had insisted it wasn't really my fault. When she'd thought about it, she had concluded she had been the one acting like a jerk and we decided that we had both done stuff we weren't proud of and that we really didn't want to talk about it again. So now, we were enjoying each other's company.

Maggie checked in on us once and Cat was so thrilled to meet her since I had told her a lot about Maggie and Maggie was so thrilled to meat Cat that they ended up talking to each other for a long time and when they were finished the tea had gotten cold.

"Do you want to go for a walk or something?" I asked Cat. I really didn't feel like going home. I was having too much of a great time for it to end already.

"Sure." She said, smiling.

As we left the shop I saw Maggie wink at me. I wasn't sure why. I mean. I really didn't have those intentions. Or did I? I did still love Cat, I knew that, and I was pretty sure she still loved me too. But we had agreed that afternoon when we made up that it would be best if we were just friends for a while. But how long was a while.

Cat and I strolled around, at first not talking about anything in particular and then we fell into some sort of comfortable silence. After a while we decided to sit down. We were at the park where we had had one of those early tea parties and we sat down on a bench not too far away from where we had been then.

"Thanks Robbie." Cat said after another moment of silence.

"For what?"

"I don't know. Everything." She smiled and I smiled back at her. I realized this was one of those sincere moment that was quite rare with Cat. She was usually just bubbly, happy, free-spirited. She didn't really talk much about serious things. But it happened, and now she was doing it again. And it made me happy that she was doing it with me, _again._

"Tonight was really great." She stated.

"I know." I said and for a moment we just sat there and looked into each other's eyes.

And that's when I decided to tell her.

"Cat... You know how we said before that it'd be better if we were just friends for a while."

She nodded slowly.

"When do you think that while is over?"

She bit her lip. And then, before I even had time to think pressed her lips against mine and kissed me. At first I was just shocked but then I started kissing her back. And it was the best feeling in the whole wide world because she was my best friend, and she loved me, and I loved her. And no matter what happened we would make it work.

I guess that was always what was meant to happen all along. It just took it's time and it had taken some twists and turns to get there, but that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that we were right there, on a park bench kissing each other and neither of us really wanting to stop.

But after a minute or so we did anyway.

"How about now?" Cat giggled. I had honestly completely forgotten what we had been talking about before she kissed me. It must've shown on my face because Cat smiled again. I blinked a couple of times before I remembered.

"Yeah. Now seems fine."

And her face cracked up and she looked happier than ever, and I found myself doing what I had always wanted to do. Kissing her smile, her beautiful candy colored smile. Her lips were soft, she tasted like tea and everything was perfect.

I love tea.

I guess that is something not a lot of people know about me. It's my biggest addiction. I love it. It calms my nerves, it makes feel all warm and it's also freaking delicious. Best beverage in the world.

The funny thing is, Cat has quite the same effect on me. And more to that.

I love tea. Almost as much as I love Cat.

**AN: So. Now to the very long AN that usually takes place at the end of these kind of stories.**

**First of all. What did you guys think?**

**Now I would like to thank a few people. First of all I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed, alerted or favorite.**

**A little extra thanks to **_**The Dragon of the North**_** and **_**ZenNoMai, who has been loyal reviewers from the beginning and also holaponies,The Littlest Ragamuffin **_**and **_**Ameha Kay **_**for constantly filling my mailbox with lovely reviews.**

**And last but not least I want to thank my- dare I say- Best Friend Alice. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have published this at all in the first place. She is basically the only person I know who I would let read my stuff and she is always encouraging me and making me feel more confident about my writing and stuff. So thanks Alice. You're the best Patronus ever.**

**That was all for me. If you liked it. Be sure to check back on my page in the future. Cause I have more, both iCArly and Victorious stuff boiling in my head right now :) Thanks again- **


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